Improving the experience of patients living with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator

This Science for Patients issue refers to ‘The experience of patients with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator: a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies’ by M Barisone et al., https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjcn/zvab135. This Science for Patients issue describes the experience of patients who have an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) fitted and what they and their families and carers should expect from their health care professionals to improve this experience. The researchers looked for studies published since 2005 that reported on patients’ stories and feelings about the experience of having an ICD and what they expect from their health care.1 The researchers included 24 studies all of which used a ‘qualitative’ research methodology.1 This means that they collected and analysed non-numerical data to understand the experiences and emotions of the patients included in the studies. This allowed an in-depth insight into the issues in question.